The emergence of informal mining in the past 10 years in some communities in Mpumalanga — especially the tourism hub in the Ehlanzeni region — has been a cause for concern. But fingers pointed at zama zamas may mask other criminality, police caution.
Zama zamas, miners who operate illegally on abandoned mining shafts, have hogged headlines in for weeks after a group of them in Krugersdorp, West Village, allegedly raped eight models during a video shoot.
In Simile, a township on the northern side of Sabie, community members have been engaged in operations to root them out.
“We used to have an understanding and they did their thing and we did ours, but it’s getting out of control now.
“It’s like 10 years that they have been operating here. They used to wash their gold with water from the stream and not from the community, suddenly they do illegal [electricity] connections and pull it to their shacks where they operate.
“We have people who connect them; you find a house distributing electricity to 10 groups of zama zamas. Then the rest of us are left with a failing electricity supply,” said Melusi Mthombothi, a resident.
Mthombothi was one of the beneficiaries of RDP houses in the Extension 3 area. His home has a small lush garden with a retractable washing line in the middle and a decent-sized yard.
But just 100m away from the old railway line that used to separate his side from the main road is a stream of makeshift shacks made out of timber and covered in plastic.
“The other issue is crime; they commit crimes like murder, robberies, or steal timber from the forests. They often threaten us, especially because we live close to them.” Mthombothi said.
When TimesLIVE Premium visited the area on Friday, there had been an operation involving local police the previous day. The zama zamas were nowhere to be seen, but their families continued with their day as normal.
The shacks house small-scale mining tools such as phendukas (cylindrical circular tools used to grind the ore by hand), water tanks and buckets, sacks full of soil, man-made wells for sieving and other material.
We are aware of the stolen timber; it’s an economic sector. There were reports of timber theft and tools like chainsaws and diesel. It’s an orchestrated criminality. The people who steal it, sell it to the informal market.
— Selvy Mohlala, Mpumalanga police spokesperson
The area is surrounded by timber forests, some of which are protected by Protrack Anti-poaching unit.
Shaene Tintinger, Protrack operations manager, said not only communities but businesses are under attack by the zama zamas and other elements.
“There’s an influx of different crimes at the moment. To show that it’s bad, my business is doing well, and we have more work.
“It’s not just the physical crimes they commit in communities, but there are natural water sources running in the forests and they now use them to refine their soil and extract gold. It has a massive environmental impact.
“I acknowledge there’s a lot of poverty and people are struggling. I don’t think removing the gold is a problem,” said Tintinger.
The answer could lie with improved management of the province’s resources.
He said timber theft had been a problem, as the zama zamas often cut it to make their structures. “They chop the natural forest for firewood and make little structures. It’s a whole industry on its own. They cut trees up to six years before harvest time, it’s a great loss.”
Selvy Mohlala, Mpumalanga police spokesperson, said though they had not yet linked the problem to zama zamas, timber theft is one of the crimes police in the province are looking to curb.
“We are aware of the stolen timber; it’s an economic sector. There were reports of timber theft and tools like chainsaws and diesel. It’s an orchestrated criminality. The people who steal it, sell it to the informal market. For now, we can’t say it’s the zama zamas.”
The informal mining challenge, he said, was widespread across the province, especially in places like the Pilgrims Rest, Sabie and Graskop as well as in Barberton, the Nkangala region, Witbank, Secunda and Kriel.
“Some of the complaints we get from communities is that the same zama zamas conduct crimes. Mostly they commit theft and robberies, outside the informal mining.
“The Panorama route — the most travelled route by tourists — is also affected. There’s an agreement to deploy tourist monitors and CPFs to assist,” Mohlala added.
He said the issue of zama zamas is a continuous problem.
“When you come they go underground. We can’t have our members going down there, it’s too dangerous. We have to be strategic and wait to clamp them when they come out.
“We will have sporadic roadblocks and operations to ensure our tourists are safe.
“You can’t be sure that there’s an increase, they move from one place to another. They will mine here and move to another location where they will get more minerals,” Mohlala said.
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